Eagle & Omega Nebulae - M16, M17, M18 & friends in NB - WIP

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I was referring to your work Gina, hadn't got to the end of the thread yet

[Gina]

Thank you very much then

I think the Eagle will be out for tonight the moon is almost on top of it

Anyway, if the current cloud cover clears I'm going to have a go at it - see what these Astrodon filters are capable of. Mi,nd you the Ha and SII are 5nm, only the OIII is 3nm. But we'll see what happens with a "super full moon" shining right down the tube"

[Gina]

Not a chance! Not only did the part cloudy sky not clear but it became totally overcast with black clouds by midnight and later started to rain I packed up soon after nidnight and went to bed. Forecast is good for tonight but there's plenty of time for it to change! Last night was a repetition of the conditions a while back when clear skies were forecast but everything changed by the time nighttime came round

[fwm891]

Looking good here at the mo. Some cloud to the south west - that would be over Dartmoor as a best guess. Good luck tonight.

[Gina]

Thank you Francis Keeping fingers crossed

[Gina]

Well... It was clear. That's the good news. But I didn't have any joy last night No stars showing in the guide camera - swamped by the moon - so no guiding possible. I did use the moon in conjunction with CdC to align the scope coordinates though. AT was playing up - it slewed to the target fine and solved the star pattern I captured in Artemis said "re-centering" then frose. This happened a couple of times so I gave up on it. Anyway, I think I was pretty much on target. However, I couldn't get anything but nicely focussed but eggy or S shaped stars and no sign of nebulosity. I tried 4min subs binned 2x2 in a vain effort to see something but still no joy. In the end I gave up, parked the scope, closed the roof, shut down and went to bed about 0130. There was an extreme dew and everything was dripping except the scope meniscus lens which was being nicely warmed by the dew heater (at least that was working well ) and the cameras. I knew dew wasn't causing a problem because the moon and stars were nice and sharp.

Forecast is clear again for tonight so if it's right I'll try again.

[Gina]

Just taken an Ha sub of 4m binned 2x2 and applied ultra stretching in PS and have now found some nebulosity. Looks like I was a bit off target but a collection of these wouldn't have been much use without guiding even if I had been on target. The moon will be twice as far away tonight as it was last night so maybe I can find a guide star.

[Gina]

More successful tonight Cured some finger trouble from yesterday as well as the moon being further away. Transparency is not the best though. Started off with 4m subs binned 2x2 to see the ratio of Ha:OIII:SII. Ha is at least twice as strong as OIII and SII. I've now set up for 10m Ha unbinned and 8m OIII and SII binned 2x2.

Here's the first 4m Ha binned 2x2. Now I shall start a new thread for the Eagle Nebula only as this thread is Eagle and Omega widefield.